On my laptop, I use it for two purposes: as a media player for my TV and also for playing live music at gigs. For the music gigs, I really need to make sure there are no extra things running on the computer and the resources are as free as possible. For media, it's the opposite, where a whole slew of things are running. If I create a different login, can I customize which services I run on each login. If I disable a bunch of services in one profile, it doesn't affect the other login, does it?

I'm not having much luck finding a program that will customize startup services per user. But I had another idea, if anyone could offer suggestions, that would be great:

Is there a program out there that will allow me to turn off a whole slew of services upon startup? That way, I can just stick it as a shortcut in the startup folder and it will run at logon, and turn off all the specified services. That would be one way to do it, right?

Is there a program out there that will allow me to turn off a whole slew of services upon startup? That way, I can just stick it as a shortcut in the startup folder and it will run at logon, and turn off all the specified services. That would be one way to do it, right?

Yep. Make a batch file or autohotkey/autoit/whatever script, and set it up so it runs it after some delay (some services take a bit of time starting).

NET STOP <name of one service to stop>NET STOP <name of another service to stop>

and such, then change it's extension to .bat, and then put a shortcut to it in the startup group.It's the best way, using ahk here is definitelly overkill You only need to know the names of the services to stop, but i'm sure you know that

How about setting up a dual boot system so that when you want to use your audio stuff in gigs you can use a really trimmed down version of Windows with just the software installed you require (ie. no internet or network connections hence no need for AV or firewall etc. to slow things down).

I did this previously and it works great - plus you are only using Windows on one computer (even though it is dual boot) and MS will activate it (but may need a phone call if you have activated your current version within the last 90 days). I had to explain but once you get past the language barrier (all calls seem to go to India these days) they seem happy enough to let you do this. After all you can only use one copy of Windows at a time by this method and it is on the same system.

jgpaiva, thanks, I will definitely do it the bat way. It's pretty simple.

Carol, for the dual boot, would it be better to partition my hard drive as well, or do it all from a single partition? And also (I've never done this before), but where is the option for dual boot when installing Windows, I don't remember seeing it?

Partition your drive and install a copy of Windows to a new clean partition.

There is no option to dual boot. Windows setup automatically detects existing installs of windows and updates the file C:\Boot.ini to give you a choice of installation when your system boots. If you have more than one copy of Windows XP installed on your system at one time the whole process of setting up is transparent and very easy to use. You can manually alter the boot options (at least the names of the installations) afterwards by either carefully editing Boot.ini or by going to Control Panel > System - hit the Advanced tab and then click on Startup and Recovery settings. Then hit Edit. It effectively just opens Boot.ini for you to edit (normally it is a hidden system file). Don't change paramaters just the installation name between the quotes.

Note you already have boot.ini if you are using Windows XP but if you only have one installation you will never see any obvious evidence of it.

Windows XP Setup is fairly intelligent. If you have Windows 98 or Windows 2000 installed on other partitions it will also include those in the boot process. VISTA manages the boot up process in a different way altogether.

Generally if you want to use the Windows multiboot setup you need to install operating systems in age order (ie. install Windows 98 first and Windows XP last - when VISTA is released install that last) that way each version you install understands the previously installed setup.

You can add different operating systems in any order you like but you then need to use a multi boot manager (such as BootIt). For your purposes at the moment this is unnecessary.

You don't need to partition to dual-boot, as long as you install copy #2 of windows in another folder (ie, c:\WinXP instead of c:\windows) - but it's recommendable to do so anyway.

Oh, and it is necessary if you're installing a 32-bit as well as a 64-bit windows - DON'T EVER TRY TO DO THAT ON THE SAME PARTITION!. Unless you really know what you're doing, and edit all the right files pre-install.

You don't need to partition to dual-boot, as long as you install copy #2 of windows in another folder (ie, c:\WinXP instead of c:\windows) - but it's recommendable to do so anyway.

I really meant to say that - but MS do not recommend it and it doesn't really make much sense as it makes coherent backups more complex and can cause a lot of potential confusion. I think if you do try and do it all in one partition you are asked to choose a new folder for C:\Windows for the second install, but if I remember correctly the C:\Program Files folder is still used by default for installation of applications. If you install the same app for both booting systems it can cause real confusion with settings (esp. MS Office).